Local Democrats try to recapture momentum for Obama

It’s up to people like county volunteer Rick Chapman to bring back the energy in a race against Mitt Romney that appears to be tightening each day.

“It’s gotten very busy,” Chapman said Thursday while working the Democratic Party of St. Johns County headquarters. “What I do is stuff door hangers, call people in the precinct.”

Chapman and fellow Democrats in the area are trying to recapture some of the energy Obama had in 2008 when he was a fresh face on the national political scene.

“I worked the 2008 campaign in Wisconsin,” Chapman said. “Obama was whole new face then. We had the excitement of minority president.

“I think there might be a little more apathy this time around.”

With more than twice as many registered Republicans as Democrats in the county, Obama clearly isn’t going to win here. But that doesn’t mean he won’t win the state, which could be crucial in the general election.

“Every vote counts and were tying to tell people that even though we’re in a Republican county, every vote counts at the state level and the national level.”

Annette Cappella, chair of the county Democratic Party, said volunteers like Chapman have spent the last few months trying to get new voters registered and registered voters to cast their ballots.

According The Associated Press, Obama’s registration and get-out-the-vote operations in 2008 played a key role in his getting elected.

The registration deadline locally has passed, but Cappella said her organization was active in adding new voters in the county.

“I think that if we can increase numbers of voters, we will have accomplished a great deal,” she said.

Now that the election is down to the final weeks, Cappella and her volunteers are spending a lot of time calling potential voters to remind them of the president’s accomplishments over the last four years.

Critics have attacked Obama’s economic policies during a period of slow growth, but Democrats want voters to remember the situation he inherited.

“A lot of people don’t think back as to where we were four years ago,” Chapman said. “And how we kind of stepped away from that and moved forward. I think we’ve stepped away from the brink.

“I think we should continue the road we have taken.”

There have been recent signs that the economy has improved, which can only help Obama’s cause.

Foreclosure filings were reported to be a five-year low in September, and jobless claims have dropped to their lowest level since 2008.

Cappella also touts the president’s health care reform to voters.

While Republicans have skewered Obamacare from its inception, Cappella said that there are a lot of positive and popular aspects of the legislation.

“I (tell people) that they will be able to get coverage no matter what kind of critical crisis, they will be able to get coverage,” Cappella said. “This will cover you. Everybody will be able to have health insurance.”

The Democrats also have a poll advantage when it comes to Social Security. Cappella, who referred to Social Security as “the best thing since sliced bread,” pushes the Democratic plan to leave it alone.

Her theory is that if the voters know what Obama has done and what his ideas are for the future, the president will get a significant share of the vote here and have a chance to win the state.

“We know it’s going to be very close,” Cappella said. “Nothing is to be taken for granted. We’re trying to get people to know what to do with their (vote).”